TORONTO – The Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) is urging the Calgary Stampede to drop the calf-roping event from its rodeo program.
The VHS launched the “have a heart for animals” full-page ad in a Calgary newspaper Thursday morning.
The ad shows a photo of a child petting a calf, with the caption “human kindness,” above a photo of a roped rodeo calf, with the caption “Stampede blindness.” The ad continues: “C’mon Stampede. Have a heart for animals. Ban calf-roping.”
“We hope the Calgary Stampede will open its eyes to the anger and disgust many people feel about calf-roping,” said Peter Fricker, VHS spokesperson, in a press release. “Dropping this event would go a long way to showing the Stampede really does care about animal welfare.”
But the “many” people who feel disgust don’t seem to be reflected in research conducted by the Stampede.
“Our market research shows us that we have tremendous support amongst our audience and amongst our community for what we do and how we do it,” Communications Advisor Bonni Clark told Global News. “Last year we had 200,000 people who came to our Grandstand shows and enjoyed a lot of these Western events, so there’s certainly a lot of great support.”
Clark referred to the event’s website, which details how the Stampede consults with professional veterinary advisors throughout the year, and works with an independent Animal Care Advisory Panel for procedures, health and handling. The Stampede boasts an “open dialogue” with the Calgary Humane Society and Alberta SPCA, and runs a Fitness to Compete program – “one of the most comprehensive animal care programs in North America.”
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“We recognize that a lot of people who criticize these events in the Stampede are not necessarily the experts in the care of heavy animals, and we always defer to the actual experts in heavy livestock,” added Clark.
She explained that not all rodeo tie-down roping is the same, and that the Calgary Stampede is proud of its “very high standards.”
A number of years ago, rule changes were made based on advice from livestock handling experts and their own veterinarians. Clark said one such change was any time a calf falls off of all four legs before the cowboy reaches it, the cowboy is disqualified from that go-round. Another is that any catch that isn’t a “clean head catch” would also result in disqualification from that go-round.
“We have set the standards and raised the bar in terms of rules and regulations around events like tie-down roping. And those changes have been copied by other major rodeos in Canada and the United States,” she said.
The Calgary Stampede runs from July 5 – 14.
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